The Clintons: U.S.’s most popular public figures — poll

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is the second most popular public figure in America with positive ratings of 58 percent, and only 28 percent holding a negative opinion of the once-controversial first lady, according to the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

The most popular figure is husband Bill Clinton: The ex-president is seen favorably by 60 percent of Americans, with just 24 percent viewing him unfavorably. In a figure that seems unbelievable given past controversies, the hard-core Clinton haters — those with “very unfavorable” views of Bill Clinton — total just eight percent in the latest poll.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton insists she has no interest in running for President in 2016. She has voiced a desire to get back to private life, write a book on her widely acclaimed work as Secretary of State, and perhaps do philanthropic work to aid the empowerment of women.

But . . . According to the poll, she enjoys 100 percent name recognition, far above any other prospective candidate. She gets a 70 percent thumbs-up among women, wins approval from seven in 10 Hispanic voters, and has a favorable rating of 87 percent with African-Americans.

Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 in a political witch hunt by House Republicans. He left the White House buffeted by controversy over a presidential pardon to fugitive financier Marc Rich. He stumbled badly as chief surrogate for his wife’s 2008 presidential run.

In the last two years, however, he has gained kudos for work in Haitian earthquake relief, campaigned tirelessly for Democrats from Washington to Florida, and given a Democratic National Convention speech that upstaged President Obama. He enjoys a high approval rating among white men, who voted against President Obama in the November election.

The Clintons’ approval ratings top the 53 percent thumbs-up given Obama, who is at his highest level since July of 2009. They are more popular than the Democratic Party, which is viewed favorably by 49 percent of Americans, and far more popular than the opposition Republican Party, seen favorably by only 30 percent of Americans. Mitt Romney gets a thumbs-up from only 35 percent of those surveyed.

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Dating back to 1992, Hillary Clinton has been a near-constant target of the conservative media-entertainment complex. She was faulted for seeming to debunk homemakers. A crowd mobilized by hate radio disrupted her 1994 health care caravan in Seattle. The Rupert Murdoch media empire (Fox News, the New York Post) ran hundreds of negative news stories in 2000 when she ran for Senate in New York.

She is, however, riding high as she prepares to leave the Cabinet. After a couple years of writing, she will be tanned, rested . . . and perhaps ready.